The 21-22 Antarctic season has been a remarkable undertaking.
It's been one of our biggest logistical seasons on the continent and in terms of
doing that in a COVID environment has been a huge undertaking.
Doing that in a COVID environment's been a real balancing act between
keeping our people safe, keeping COVID out of Antarctica which we've been successful with,
but also ensuring we deliver the amazing science we have
to deliver in Antarctica this year, and across every major outcome we're aiming for we've
been able to achieve, and bringing that all together has been a remarkable undertaking.
The Australian Antarctic Program had a number of wins this season.
We actually had a number of teams from multiple different university partners
and the Antarctic Division undertaking fieldwork at Casey station, and we also
had some really great science wins from the very first commissioning voyage of RSV Nuyina.
So we have a 'wet well' on Nuyina and this is one of the real game-changing things that
the Nuyina brings to our science, because it allows us to be able to capture really
delicate marine life in almost pristine condition. So we put that through its paces
on this first voyage and in fact within moments of commissioning the equipment we were able to
capture live krill in almost perfect condition, and in fact we brought back 15,000 live krill
to the aquaria here in Hobart that the researchers can continue to work on over the next 12 months.